Spotlight on Silver from Winsor & Newton Newsletter

A special mix of pigments gives silver paint its metallic shine. Find out more about this eye-catching colour, first used back in the 1400s.

The Bauhaus school in Dessau, Germany, ran from 1919-1933, during which time the students, known as Bauhauslers, held festivals or parties several times a year. Each party would have its own theme, such as Kite, Lantern or Beard, Nose, Hearts, with extensive planning including invitations, decorations and costumes. The most famous of all the festivals was the Metallic Festival or Metallische Fest held on February 9, 1929. At the Metal Party, Bauhauslers were invited to dress as bottle openers, egg whisks or bells, making costumes using anything they could find that was silver in colour, including tin foil, frying pans and spoons. There was a chute guests could slide down to enter a room filled with silver balls and the windows of the building were covered in tin foil, making the 1929 event resemble a scene from a science fiction film.

The “golden age of science fiction” of 1938 to 1946 should perhaps have been called the silver age of science fiction, because the colour silver would dominate the genre for years to come. Silver became a short-hand for futurism and the space age – for example in the silver metallic space suits of the first space crew, the Mercury 7.

Source: Spotlight on Silver